Red Tulips, Thorn Apples
by pozarpel
Summary: In which Kano, using the roundabout and somewhat stupid methodology of a ten year old with superpowers, makes sure his best friend gets the chocolate she deserves. No lie. *


"Ki~do~"

Kido pointedly rolled over on the bed so her back faced him. It wasn't often that this happened with Kano around, but she knew precisely what was coming next. Even at ten years old—especially at ten years old— Kido knew not to entertain his whimsy for too long if at all.

Back then, Kano's morality was footloose and frenzied. Seto was wary, Ayano was worried, but Kido was at least intrigued. She felt awful that way, too. Angry. Mean. She understood.

But she was less annoying, in her opinion. Much less annoying.

"Ki~do~ Did you hear me?" He jabbed a finger at her back.

"Unfortunately."

"Are you gonna make anyone chocolates? For the fourteenth?" Kido shifted on the bed, and Kido could feel him at her back, sitting up and peering down at her with those hateful eyes. She turned further, stubborn, and drew herself in tightly, swaddling the blankets around her small frame. (She was really no good at ignoring him. Not ever.)

"I don't think so," she said, and could have left it at that, except—"I think it's a stupid day."

"I see," Kano remarked lightly, as if Kido's gloom had absolutely no substance. "I was hoping to get chocolates from you, Kido." He prodded her back.

"Well, too bad. Obligatory chocolates are stupid."

A silence arose; contemplative for Kano—she could just hear the cognitive mischief ticking away in his head— and for Kido, peaceable and yet bitter. She hated Kano for broaching the subject, but in truth she'd been thinking much about it herself. Stupidly.

"How is it stupid?" Kano asked at length, prodding her back again. Maybe he thought she'd vanish if he didn't do that.

"Just this boy-girl candy switch ritual in general. It's stupid. I'm not interested."

"Not interested?" It was rare for Kano to ask her things, and rare for Kano to request so much elaboration, but Kido didn't notice that nuanced behavior just yet. In a languid movement that rung out 'unspoken melancholy', she turned her head to stare at him. Then she looked away, her slender fingers gripping at the front of her nightgown.

Quite pitifully, she murmured, "Maybe it's that no one's interested in me. Or rather, they've got no idea who I am anyway. If I even exist. I'll get nothing for White Day and nothing for this, so why bother? I'll just help Ayano-nee with her chocolates. She's bound to get a ton back."

"Maybe she'll share," suggested Kano, dipping his head to hear Kido better.

He saw the tears glistening on her pale cheeks, and said no more. Even at ten years old—especially at ten years old— Kano knew tears were not something _he_ could hope to fix.

(0)(0)(0)

"Geez," Hibiya said dreamily, his cheek flat against his upheld hand. "If Hiyori gives me Valentine's chocolates, I will die right here."

He used to refrain from Number One Hiyori Fan-level gushing, but since opening up to the Dan, it'd been a hellish experience of obsession observation. Kano laughed, glancing up from the other side of the table with raised eyebrows.

"None of us doubt that you will froth at the mouth and keel over, I think~"

"Don't pick on him," Shintaro said, to which Kano responded, "His words, not mine," with that flippant shrug and handwagging.

"Shut up, Uncle."

"A first valentine's chocolate is a really important thing," Seto was saying. "You haven't received any chocolates from a girl before, right, Hibiya?"

The youngest member snorted, and lay his head down across his arms. "I don't mind if I never get any chocolates from any girl so long as _Hiyori_—"

"That's no good," Kano interrupted him. "I just know Momo will make you some."

The face Hibiya made was distaste in its purest form.

"That's gross."

"Don't call my sister gross. Even if she kind of is."

"That's mean, Shintaro."

"Hn."

They sat quietly like that, then, their conversation wound down around the table, until Kano got bored of looking at the wall and turned to the other boys with a coltish grin. "It's gonna be a while until the girls are done, isn't it? How about I tell a story— Kido's best Valentine's Day. Even Seto doesn't know this one."

"This is going to make us all uncomfortable, isn't it," Hibiya groused, speaking for every other male in the room.

"I imagine so," Kano said brightly. "But keep it a secret, okay? So we were like ten, anyway—"

(0)(0)(0)

After Ayano walked them to school and scurried off to the middle school department, arms loaded with obligatory chocolate and running five or ten minutes late, Seto and Kano turned to Kido, who was walking a little quicker than usual.

"Aren't you tired?" Seto asked sympathetically, jogging to catch up with her as they entered the long hallways. "Did you really stay up half the night to make chocolates with Ayano-nee?"

"She let me," Kido snapped defensively, side-eying the other boy. At the time, she was the tallest of the three and she flaunted it when she could. She liked the presence when she could have it. "It was fun."

She didn't sound very happy at all.

Kano came up on her other side. "You're sure you didn't put any chocolate aside for us?"

"You're persistent, aren't you?" Kido almost smiled, a grim and unhappy smile at best, but as the corner twitched upwards she turned and nailed him in the shoulder with a fist. "My Valentine's gift to you," she announced.

"I'll skip," Seto chirped on her left side, somewhat timidly watching Kano rub at his arm. "I'll skip on my Valentine's gift."

"Great, then! Let's just get this all over with," Kido announced—all around them, girls were scurrying with bright pink plastics, heart-shaped boxes, handwrapped packages, well-worked sweets.

"You really do seem tired, though." Kano said, as they speedily turned a corner. Kido pitched a short glare at him, then rubbed at her eyes and kept walking on.

"You'll be tired, too. You guys will be running away from girls all day." She tried to laugh, as if she'd found some levity, but it came out high-strung and wrong, and even Kano and Seto could see a strangeness in the bearing of her back.

"Will I? We'll see." Kano said with a shrug, then stopped at one of the corners. He swept a bow at them, although Kido only caught a passing glimpse, and quite carelessly at that. "This is where I leave you. Best of luck, Kido!"

She didn't slow down.

Seto and Kido shared a class that year, but Kano was in the next one over. It was maddening some days, and relieving the others.

"That's not Kano's class," Seto observed a few seconds later, narrowly dodging an oncoming candy-bearer.

"He's probably up to something, or doing whatever."

"You're wrong, you know," Seto said, gripping the straps of his backpack as he jogged alongside her. "I won't get any chocolates."

"You will. And Kano—"

"Kano's not that popular!" Seto blurted out, earnest as usual.

"His classmates fall over themselves listening to his dumb false stories. They actually believe them." She lowered her voice, half for secrecy and half for harsher effect. "And I swear he makes himself prettier around them."

"You think his ability's an advantage," Seto said aloud.

"It's not fair, huh?"

Seto put a little jump to his step, closing his fingers around Kido's hand. She could be scary, but it was usually for their sake. Or if she needed understanding. Seto afforded what understanding he could.

"It's okay," he said on impulse, for that was all he could think to say. He was still uncertain which words made for consolation, and Kido and Kano were tough to crack in that regard. But Seto tried, because Ayano-nee had classes, and she wouldn't be around all the time. "It's okay.

"I'll make you chocolates next year," he continued hurriedly. "Or we'll make them together. It'll be fun."

Kido pulled her hand back, leaving Seto grasping at thin air. She opened her mouth, and it was one of those moments where nothing came out. She stood, though. Real still. Pensive.

"Okay." She said, because she didn't have much choice. A sadness still lurked in her chest, but she sought after Kano's ways and pulled a clumsy smile onto her face. It made her angry, to do such a thing. She didn't know how Kano could bear it. "Next year. But we'll be late for class. So. Hurry up."

She walked, and Seto followed.

(0)(0)(0)

Seto did end up receiving chocolate. Kido was genuinely happy for him. He deserved it, in her eyes. Kano didn't.

Seto's score: two obligatory chocolates from friends, one "Thanks for taking care of my hamsters!" chocolate from some girl in another class, and two real confession chocolates. She had to feel sorry for him there; Seto didn't know how to deal with that. Just now, he had sort of followed the second girl outside the classroom with a wobble in his step and an uneasy smile. Kido saluted him as he went.

Without Seto in the room, Kido kept to herself. She had a seat close to the door, and she spent her breaks there if she could help it. On bad days, the library was a good substitute. On worse days, the bathroom sufficed.

The classroom door slid open, and Kido lifted her eyes to assess Seto's state of mind after a harrowing brush with unfamiliar social situations—what all three of them dreaded, really—but instead spotted this pig-tailed girl. She'd never seen her before, and took a second to scan her features, but upon finding nothing of interest—just another hopeful with chocolate in her hands—she turned her attention back to the music pounding in her ears, ratcheting up the volume.

And so, for a bit there, she didn't notice.

Didn't notice the girl scanning the room.

Didn't notice her beatific smile in Kido's general direction.

Didn't notice the girl turning on her heels.

And didn't notice the girl coming to a delicate and graceful stop right in front of her desk.

"H-H-Happy… V…"

Kido looked up, puzzled. There was a pretty girl standing in front of her desk clutching a little bundle of chocolates, and her mouth was moving.

"Happy Val…Valentine's Day…"

It was here that a bumbling Kido paused her music player, here that the girl raised her head—her curly locks flapping attractively— and here that the girl thrust the package of chocolates at Kido's chest.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Kido-_kun_!"

Kido gawked.

It almost felt like the whole world was gawking, for once.

The embarrassment stripped away her chance to speak, her chance to correct this hideous mistake—did she mean another Kido? Possibly? What?

_What? _

"I—I've always liked you," the girl continued, heated now in her confession. Kido felt a hotness rise in her cheeks. Oh, no. No. She was blushing _for all the wrong reasons. _

"I've always liked you from afar, Kido-kun. I think you're wonderful! I think you're strong, and— smart— and overall just lovely. And really cute!"

"Um."

"You really caught my eye," the girl confessed quietly, and Kido felt her heart thud hard, as if it might fall out of place.

It was the first time she'd ever heard that.

"Thanks," Kido said sincerely, because she felt gratitude first, then, gratitude and awe and something warm, before she felt confusion and embarrassment. She reached her hand out, tentatively.

Before she could clear anything up, though, that girl nodded once, in the frame of a split second, and turned and ran out the classroom before Kido could stumble out of her chair. It felt like the whole class was looking in her direction, but she didn't quite care for their attention or derision at the time.

It felt like a ghost encounter. Like a dream. It was no less surreal than her eyes.

The evidence of this reality, though, lay still on her desk, in a little bundle of chocolates.

(0)(0)(0)

"Naturally, I was that pig-tailed girl."

For a moment, the table of boys was wordless. Kano had admitted to something so fucked up with such pride—as expected, actually. What a way to tease a girl.

"That was _you?!_" Seto exclaimed, whipping his head in his friend's direction.

"Yup. Me."

"Gross," Hibiya mumbled queasily. "That's so gross."

"Not as gross as you, shorty."

"No, no, I think that's, that's pretty gross," was Shintaro's input. Kano frowned at him—sometimes it seemed like he was still bitter about the whole _Ayano imitation thing. _

"Hey, you know what? Kido was happy. Wasn't she? Seto? Right?"

"Um," Seto started, "I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to divulge that?"

"Come on. Back me up."

"Why did you even tell this story if you _knew _we would think you were screwy for it?" That was Hibiya.

Kano turned to him with a devil-may-care shrug. "Isn't it funny? Imagine Kido's face when she gets confessed to by a little girl. Come _on_. It's hilarious."

"No, I'm pretty sure that's kind of sad," Shintaro said slowly. Kano sighed.

"It's an art you guys can't understand."

"You are just. So horrible." Hibiya.

"Um, okay." Seto. Seto, speaking up on Kano's part. "It actually wasn't that horrible. Or, actually, it kind of was that horrible? Kano didn't tell the whole story."

"Oh, right." Kano held his hand over his mouth, as if he was hiding the biggest smile. "Kido's face just happened to be my favorite part."

"Okay," Shintaro sighed, waving his hand at them. "Kido's best/worst Valentine's Day, part two."

(*He lied)


End file.
